I really had a bad feeling when they decided to start the race without any real practice or qualifying. It was an accident waiting to happen. Indy has the benefit of being a "month's worth" of track time (at least longer than two days).
I was there at Pocono last year aswell and that was really painful to see in person. There wasn't really any news on whether Wickens was alive or not for hours either. The track crews did a great job bringing nearly 100 workers out to go and fix the fence and resume the racing. The race afterwards between Power and Rossi in particular was great and exciting to see, but I couldn't bring myself to go this year after that accident. Sadly I think my home track is off of the schedule.
Always love a new GPLaps video in my sub box! I admit I had that same sinking feeling this year watching the crash; that maybe this is the end of the era of open-wheel cars at superspeedways for now, until we can find ways to reduce the risks. I hope the new cockpit protection systems help us breathe a bit easier when a car goes into the catch fence, as i do truly love Indycar battles on the fast ovals and want to see them stay. I think Pocono is an awesome challenge for the drivers (and feels amazing in the sim!), but it's also seemed to not be the safest. The catch fence along the back stretch wasn't even added until 2010, and the fence itself seems to tear cars up a lot more than at other venues. There's also been a host of really hard hits on cutouts on the inside wall for the SCCA courses and other infield roads. I honestly love watching the open wheel cars at Pocono so much - I just wish it didn't seem like such a gamble with fate.
Honestly I think the solution to the safety issues at big oval tracks is pretty simple - lower the HP of the engines. It's the speeds they're running that make it much more dangerous. These cars are running so fast that bad things are inevitable when normal wrecks occur. To me it would be straightforward to accomplish this, mandating smaller displacement motors that simply can't push the cars as fast as they're running now. Indycars haven't always been 230+ mph cars, so it's possible to do. I'm sure there will be some complainers, but people will eventually get used to the new lower speeds and it will be a non-issue. As long as the racing is good and the cars still have enough speed variance to make for good passing and racing, most would be ok with it I think.
I have no problem with Pocono as long as they raise the barriers in the turns, and the same goes for Indianapolis. Seriously, what is it going to take at this point? That being said, Pocono looks like it may possibly go the way of Nazareth because IndyCar is leaving the track anyway, and the NASCAR community has wanted to skip the Pocono race for years although NASCAR usually does the exact opposite of what the community wants much like the FIA.
Loved the video! I would love to know how you managed to enable the overhead mirror in cockpit view because the actual mirrors in the car just don't work properly
I am actually racing from the hood exterior view but have edited the camera to be positioned in the cockpit. I did this specifically because the mirrors do not work!
@@GPLaps What tools did you use to edit the camera? Are those the same tools used by track makers to edit replay cams? I'm fairly new to NR2003 so I'm not familiar with everything yet. Thanks for the reply!
Pocono is dangerous because of how wide the straightaways are. Bigger straightaways lead to more daring moves, which could lead to dangerous wrecks as well. I like the track, but it probably won’t be back. Will it be the end of the big speedways? Probably not, we race tracks like Texas without any serious issues, it would be nice to return to Fontana and Michigan, as those were pretty good races. It’s just the issue of making sure the track can safely be run by Indycar.
@@landoflogic107 It's only the front straight that's superwide, and the issue isn't the width anyway. The issue was both that they started the cars way too close together (the 3-wide Indy style start with cars being 200ft apart worked fine before) and that the spotters on Turn 2 were placed at ground level where they could barely see anything.
@@landoflogic107 I still don't get what the management at Pocono was thinking though. Even the patchwork they made to the fence after Wicken's crash is pitiful. Rosenqvist was very lucky that he didn't strike a fence post like Wickens did.
Unfortunately there is no place for high speed ovals in open wheel racing, the cars are not meant for contact at those speeds no matter how safe they get
Coincidently I had just read on Twitter today that Pocono is off the schedule now right before I was going to check out your recent video uploads. The way the whole safety discussion is run by the crybabies it has reached a point where you need to ask those people if racing should be banned altogether. I'd never watch a race live on TV or in person where it's a certain that someone is going to die like the Isle of Man TT races & I've also lost interest in watching the highlights packages of it for the same reason. But in Indycar superspeedway racing it so seldom that something really bad happens and when it does it's mostly down to the awful technical rules of today, ridicolous risk taking by some drivers & maybe a lack of safety progression on the tracks. There are more fatal accidents in professional bicycle racing than in Indycar & I've never heard anyone calling for a ban of the downhill sections or something like that. IIRC it was only a few years ago that the Tour de France demanded to wear a helmet for the downhill sections but they still allow no helmet in other sections AFAIK. What I also hate is when people like Wickens come from DTM, the safest racing series ever (zero fatal accidents since it began in the 80s) and other series bring up those discussions. They should stay from Indycar racing or deal with it, team owner will always find drivers willing to take to the ultimate risk. I also respect Mike Conway very much. He tried Indycar superspeedway but later said that he has had enough and I did not read any comment dissing him for that. He and other people like Piquet, Bräck etc. did not call for the banning of tracks despite that they had awful accidents.
They should use large remote control cars with cameras and the drivers sitting safely in a room wearing vr headsets. The spectators would also watch safely in vr away from the track. Death row prisoners could be strapped to the hoods of the cars so that there would still be an element of danger.
The right answer is Indy Car needs to stick to Ovals, It is where they came from.How many drivers died over the years of INDY CAR racing? Without Risk you have nothing.
IMHO oval racing can be saved if the tracks were redesigned. Hitting a wall at 200+ is just idiotic at this point in racing history. Indy cars are airplanes with no wings for flight so why race inside walls? NASCAR was considering knocking the bankings down on some tracks but it didn't happen. The speeds are just too high for even a 1.5 mile oval track with walls. Every wall should be pushed back with gravel or something before it, the grandstands raised so the cars can go under them and fences to keep the fans safe for example. No one wants to do it. i've dreamt of a track like Trenton but with low banks, no walls next to the racing surface. they would be fifty or more feet back and all safer barriers, and it be 2 miles instead of 2.5. The penultimate corner would be 90 and flat. I'm rambling a bit but it could be done. Here's another bit for though; how much longer are we going to have internal combustion racing cars that need high banked tracks? Formula E is exciting every week. Just sayin'...
Even in a decade a battery powered racecar will not be competitive in a 500 mile race most likely not even over shorter distances and I doubt that the TV stations are keen on turning the Indy 500 into a 48 hours race at snail speeds.
Pocono isn't representative of Indycars I think. It's such a dodgy track. Texas and Vegas etc are much safer. As for aggressive drivers that's a problem in all motorsport right now. The safer the cars the less likely you are to die the more likely people make terrible moves. In the old days you knew the slightest slip would be to the detriment of your health at minimum. Nowadays Sato can pinch three wide like an idiot and know he'll get out and dust himself off. But when you watch a bunch of fatsos in t-shirts and a pickup attempting to repair fencing with gaffa tape it's not a good look for the safety of the drivers. Once Indycar looks away from promoters money and suggests that they'll only go to places that have high safety standards then things will be okay. Throttles work both ways.
Indy Racing, Nascar and the US Oval mile bike racing are the equivalent of medieval executions. People are there for the mayhem, and crashes. The racing is boring to watch, and it's also boring to drive (online). If there were no crashes, I doubt anyone would come to watch it at all. I do get it, it comes out of that US Ethos of flat out straight line fever!
That's a ridiculous explaination based on no evidence. You could say the exact same thing about F1 given how everyone harkins back to "good old days" when drivers died left and right, and, honestly, F1 has been *a lot* more boring than NASCAR and IndyCar lately (even when excluding the oval races.) Also, what about touring cars and rally? The last time a driver died in an oval race (excluding a freak incident i.e. debris which can and has killed drivers on *any* type of race or Dan Wheldon's death when he crashed into a fence post) was Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 2001 with a basal skull fracture which wouldn't have happened if he was wearing a HANS device. That wreck is what made the HANS decice madatory - before F1 even adopted it. Yes, oval races have had close calls since then... just like every other series on the planet, but that's why IndyCar is implementing their own version of the halo even though everyone will still complain about it like they do in F1 because it's ugly.
@NeonsStyle: Oh, so the Isle of Man TT races and bicycle racing must also come out of that US Ethos then. I think watching chess is more appropiate for people like you.
Great to see you back. Thanks for the vid man!
Finish the 1955 Season please!!!!!
(I wanna see you run that Monza Oval 😀)
Love your calm demeanor while racing and the history lessons of the track and cars great job 👍
I really had a bad feeling when they decided to start the race without any real practice or qualifying. It was an accident waiting to happen. Indy has the benefit of being a "month's worth" of track time (at least longer than two days).
Appreciate the window into your sentimental side there. It provides more connection with your viewers. More NR2003 short mod races!
Shout out from a fellow New Englander! Originally from CT, now more recently living in Scranton, CT, just 30 miles north of this track.
Loved the vid! Always interesting action and content. Keep up the good stuff!
I was there at Pocono last year aswell and that was really painful to see in person. There wasn't really any news on whether Wickens was alive or not for hours either. The track crews did a great job bringing nearly 100 workers out to go and fix the fence and resume the racing. The race afterwards between Power and Rossi in particular was great and exciting to see, but I couldn't bring myself to go this year after that accident. Sadly I think my home track is off of the schedule.
Always love a new GPLaps video in my sub box!
I admit I had that same sinking feeling this year watching the crash; that maybe this is the end of the era of open-wheel cars at superspeedways for now, until we can find ways to reduce the risks. I hope the new cockpit protection systems help us breathe a bit easier when a car goes into the catch fence, as i do truly love Indycar battles on the fast ovals and want to see them stay. I think Pocono is an awesome challenge for the drivers (and feels amazing in the sim!), but it's also seemed to not be the safest. The catch fence along the back stretch wasn't even added until 2010, and the fence itself seems to tear cars up a lot more than at other venues. There's also been a host of really hard hits on cutouts on the inside wall for the SCCA courses and other infield roads.
I honestly love watching the open wheel cars at Pocono so much - I just wish it didn't seem like such a gamble with fate.
Would love to see more Indy content! You are awesome
Honestly I think the solution to the safety issues at big oval tracks is pretty simple - lower the HP of the engines. It's the speeds they're running that make it much more dangerous. These cars are running so fast that bad things are inevitable when normal wrecks occur. To me it would be straightforward to accomplish this, mandating smaller displacement motors that simply can't push the cars as fast as they're running now. Indycars haven't always been 230+ mph cars, so it's possible to do. I'm sure there will be some complainers, but people will eventually get used to the new lower speeds and it will be a non-issue. As long as the racing is good and the cars still have enough speed variance to make for good passing and racing, most would be ok with it I think.
I'm glad you're back on TH-cam. Fulltime or part time
My lord. You have returned
I have no problem with Pocono as long as they raise the barriers in the turns, and the same goes for Indianapolis. Seriously, what is it going to take at this point?
That being said, Pocono looks like it may possibly go the way of Nazareth because IndyCar is leaving the track anyway, and the NASCAR community has wanted to skip the Pocono race for years although NASCAR usually does the exact opposite of what the community wants much like the FIA.
Well...
I have a question where do you get the link for this track?
Yes please do more NR2003 season and use other mods as well and do some championship too :)
Loved the video! I would love to know how you managed to enable the overhead mirror in cockpit view because the actual mirrors in the car just don't work properly
I am actually racing from the hood exterior view but have edited the camera to be positioned in the cockpit. I did this specifically because the mirrors do not work!
@@GPLaps What tools did you use to edit the camera? Are those the same tools used by track makers to edit replay cams? I'm fairly new to NR2003 so I'm not familiar with everything yet. Thanks for the reply!
Pocono is dangerous because of how wide the straightaways are. Bigger straightaways lead to more daring moves, which could lead to dangerous wrecks as well. I like the track, but it probably won’t be back. Will it be the end of the big speedways? Probably not, we race tracks like Texas without any serious issues, it would be nice to return to Fontana and Michigan, as those were pretty good races. It’s just the issue of making sure the track can safely be run by Indycar.
Even though the wreck happened in Turn 2?
Logan Palmer happened on the straightaway going i to two
@@landoflogic107 It's only the front straight that's superwide, and the issue isn't the width anyway. The issue was both that they started the cars way too close together (the 3-wide Indy style start with cars being 200ft apart worked fine before) and that the spotters on Turn 2 were placed at ground level where they could barely see anything.
Logan Palmer you make a fair point, I forgot that the whole track wasn’t the same width.
@@landoflogic107 I still don't get what the management at Pocono was thinking though. Even the patchwork they made to the fence after Wicken's crash is pitiful. Rosenqvist was very lucky that he didn't strike a fence post like Wickens did.
Looks decent, any chance for them to make proper mirrors? Also, can you look left and right with the buttons, GPL style?
You can look left and right in the cockpit view, yes.
Unfortunately there is no place for high speed ovals in open wheel racing, the cars are not meant for contact at those speeds no matter how safe they get
Coincidently I had just read on Twitter today that Pocono is off the schedule now right before I was going to check out your recent video uploads.
The way the whole safety discussion is run by the crybabies it has reached a point where you need to ask those people if racing should be banned altogether. I'd never watch a race live on TV or in person where it's a certain that someone is going to die like the Isle of Man TT races & I've also lost interest in watching the highlights packages of it for the same reason. But in Indycar superspeedway racing it so seldom that something really bad happens and when it does it's mostly down to the awful technical rules of today, ridicolous risk taking by some drivers & maybe a lack of safety progression on the tracks. There are more fatal accidents in professional bicycle racing than in Indycar & I've never heard anyone calling for a ban of the downhill sections or something like that. IIRC it was only a few years ago that the Tour de France demanded to wear a helmet for the downhill sections but they still allow no helmet in other sections AFAIK.
What I also hate is when people like Wickens come from DTM, the safest racing series ever (zero fatal accidents since it began in the 80s) and other series bring up those discussions. They should stay from Indycar racing or deal with it, team owner will always find drivers willing to take to the ultimate risk. I also respect Mike Conway very much. He tried Indycar superspeedway but later said that he has had enough and I did not read any comment dissing him for that. He and other people like Piquet, Bräck etc. did not call for the banning of tracks despite that they had awful accidents.
Wait, so you drove 5 hours to get to the race only to go home after 7 laps?
They should use large remote control cars with cameras and the drivers sitting safely in a room wearing vr headsets. The spectators would also watch safely in vr away from the track. Death row prisoners could be strapped to the hoods of the cars so that there would still be an element of danger.
Use congressmen.
@@TheEgg185 , They are used for the figure 8 junker races.
The right answer is Indy Car needs to stick to Ovals, It is where they came from.How many drivers died over the years of INDY CAR racing? Without Risk you have nothing.
IMHO oval racing can be saved if the tracks were redesigned. Hitting a wall at 200+ is just idiotic at this point in racing history. Indy cars are airplanes with no wings for flight so why race inside walls? NASCAR was considering knocking the bankings down on some tracks but it didn't happen. The speeds are just too high for even a 1.5 mile oval track with walls. Every wall should be pushed back with gravel or something before it, the grandstands raised so the cars can go under them and fences to keep the fans safe for example. No one wants to do it. i've dreamt of a track like Trenton but with low banks, no walls next to the racing surface. they would be fifty or more feet back and all safer barriers, and it be 2 miles instead of 2.5. The penultimate corner would be 90 and flat. I'm rambling a bit but it could be done. Here's another bit for though; how much longer are we going to have internal combustion racing cars that need high banked tracks? Formula E is exciting every week. Just sayin'...
Even in a decade a battery powered racecar will not be competitive in a 500 mile race most likely not even over shorter distances and I doubt that the TV stations are keen on turning the Indy 500 into a 48 hours race at snail speeds.
Pocono isn't representative of Indycars I think. It's such a dodgy track. Texas and Vegas etc are much safer. As for aggressive drivers that's a problem in all motorsport right now. The safer the cars the less likely you are to die the more likely people make terrible moves. In the old days you knew the slightest slip would be to the detriment of your health at minimum. Nowadays Sato can pinch three wide like an idiot and know he'll get out and dust himself off.
But when you watch a bunch of fatsos in t-shirts and a pickup attempting to repair fencing with gaffa tape it's not a good look for the safety of the drivers. Once Indycar looks away from promoters money and suggests that they'll only go to places that have high safety standards then things will be okay. Throttles work both ways.
Mostly true, but I don't agree about Texas and Vegas being safer and the fencing repairs weren't as bad as it looked I'd say.
Indy Racing, Nascar and the US Oval mile bike racing are the equivalent of medieval executions. People are there for the mayhem, and crashes. The racing is boring to watch, and it's also boring to drive (online). If there were no crashes, I doubt anyone would come to watch it at all. I do get it, it comes out of that US Ethos of flat out straight line fever!
That's a ridiculous explaination based on no evidence. You could say the exact same thing about F1 given how everyone harkins back to "good old days" when drivers died left and right, and, honestly, F1 has been *a lot* more boring than NASCAR and IndyCar lately (even when excluding the oval races.) Also, what about touring cars and rally?
The last time a driver died in an oval race (excluding a freak incident i.e. debris which can and has killed drivers on *any* type of race or Dan Wheldon's death when he crashed into a fence post) was Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 2001 with a basal skull fracture which wouldn't have happened if he was wearing a HANS device. That wreck is what made the HANS decice madatory - before F1 even adopted it.
Yes, oval races have had close calls since then... just like every other series on the planet, but that's why IndyCar is implementing their own version of the halo even though everyone will still complain about it like they do in F1 because it's ugly.
@NeonsStyle: Oh, so the Isle of Man TT races and bicycle racing must also come out of that US Ethos then. I think watching chess is more appropiate for people like you.